LONDON – European football’s summer transfer window was closing on Friday with English champion Manchester City the main mover among the continent’s major teams on a relatively quiet deadline day.

UEFA’s strict financial fair play rules, which are forcing clubs to only spend what they earn, and Europe’s economic difficulties have reined in spending compared to recent years.

Yet City, which has been quiet in the transfer market this summer by its standards, acted late to sign Brazil right back Maicon from Inter Milan and highly rated winger Scott Sinclair from Swansea.

In return, manager Roberto Mancini sold Netherlands holding midfielder Nigel de Jong to AC Milan, but was believed to be keen on making more signings before the 2200 GMT cutoff to strengthen his squad for City’s Premier League title defence.

Manchester United sold Dimitar Berbatov to Fulham and Rafael van der Vaart left Tottenham to rejoin Hamburg but, aside from City, there was little movement among England’s big teams.

Real Madrid and Barcelona appear to have long tied up their transfer dealings for the summer, although Barca sent Dutch winger Ibrahim Afellay to Schalke in the other main signing in Germany.

In Italy, the window closed after Denmark forward Nicklas Bendtner was loaned from Arsenal to champion Juventus, with a view to a permanent move at the end of the season, and free agent Luca Toni rejoined Fiorentina just before the deadline.

Milan, which sold top stars Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva to Paris Saint-Germain during the close season, reportedly paid City a €3.5 million ($4.4 million) transfer fee for De Jong in a surprise move.

With City having splashed out more than $1 billion on new players over the past 3 1/2 years, Mancini has been left frustrated this summer by the lack of spending by the club’s Abu Dhabi owners.

That is a sign of the times, with the total transfer spend across Europe this year — excluding deals on Thursday and Friday — being 78 per cent less than the 2008-2011 average.

City bought England midfielder Jack Rodwell from Everton for a reported 15 million pounds before the start of the season but Mancini has been suggesting he was ready to dip back into the market this week.

In came Maicon, a buccaneering full back in the mould of a player who already plays at right back for City — Micah Richards. Sinclair had already joined by then, a like-for-like replacement for Adam Johnson who signed for Sunderland last week.

City, which also brought in former Arsenal goalkeeper Richard Wright as backup, got a big earner off the wage bill by selling Roque Santa Cruz to Malaga, having sold Emmanuel Adebayor to Tottenham last week.

Swansea, which has won both of its games in the Premier League this season under new manager Michael Laudrup, filled the void left by Sinclair by signing Valencia winger Pablo Hernandez for a club-record 5.5 million pounds ($8.7 million).

And another deal in England saw Gaston Ramirez join newly promoted Southampton from Bologna.

The transfer window is closed in Italy and Germany but there were still three hours left in England and Spain for late signings to be made.